Image: Royal Caribbean International
Choosing your cruise cabin can involve a surprising amount of strategy.
Some passengers want to be close to the lifts. Others want to be nowhere near them. Light sleepers might carefully avoid cabins beneath the pool deck or nightclub, while anyone prone to seasickness may specifically choose something low and midship.
And, quite often, passengers pay more for the privilege of choosing exactly where they'll be.
But some guests booked aboard Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas are discovering that selecting and paying for a particular cabin doesn't necessarily mean they'll get to keep it.
Passengers booked on the ship's 12 October sailing from Los Angeles have reportedly been notified that their selected staterooms need to be reassigned because of occupancy requirements.
While Royal Caribbean works out their replacement accommodation, affected reservations may temporarily appear as GTY, or guarantee, bookings.
Image: Royal Caribbean International
Passengers being moved from cabins they selected
The four-night Ovation of the Seas cruise departs Los Angeles on 12 October, with calls at Catalina Island and Ensenada before returning on 16 October.
According to correspondence shared by an affected passenger and reported by Cruise Hive, Royal Caribbean said a review of the reservation found that the stateroom's assigned occupancy needed to be adjusted.
The cruise line said affected passengers would be moved to accommodation suitable for their group, either within the same cabin category or an upgraded category.
While that happens, the booking may temporarily show GTY status until a new cabin number is allocated.
On the surface, being promised the same category or potentially receiving an upgrade doesn't sound too bad.
But there's one fairly significant problem.
Some passengers deliberately paid more so they wouldn't have a GTY cabin in the first place.
One passenger says they paid $300 extra to choose their cabin
One affected passenger says they booked directly with Royal Caribbean months ago and paid approximately US$300 more to select their particular cabin rather than taking a cheaper guarantee option.
Their reservation has reportedly displayed GTY status since 30 June.
The passenger's frustration isn't simply about losing their preferred cabin. They argue they've effectively ended up receiving the type of booking they deliberately paid extra to avoid.
According to Cruise Hive, the passenger says several Royal Caribbean representatives have declined to provide reimbursement or compensation.
Other passengers have reported different experiences, including eventually receiving upgraded cabins or onboard credit. These reports come from individual passengers, however, and don't appear to represent a standard compensation policy.
Image: Royal Caribbean International
Can Royal Caribbean actually move you?
This is where things get interesting.
Royal Caribbean's Australian booking conditions specifically address minimum cabin occupancy.
Certain stateroom categories capable of accommodating between three and 11 passengers are subject to minimum occupancy requirements and are prioritised for bookings meeting their maximum occupancy.
The conditions state that Royal Caribbean reserves the right to move guests who fall below the minimum occupancy requirement to another stateroom of an equal or higher grade.
So yes, at least under Royal Caribbean's Australian booking conditions, the cruise line explicitly reserves the right to move passengers in these circumstances.
That doesn't necessarily settle the other question passengers are raising, though: what happens to the extra money someone paid specifically for cabin selection?
What does GTY mean on a cruise?
A guarantee, or GTY, booking generally means you're guaranteed a cabin within at least the category you've purchased, but you don't choose the individual cabin.
Royal Caribbean allocates the cabin number and location, potentially as late as check-in at the port.
Under its Australian conditions, a GTY passenger isn't guaranteed a particular deck or location and may receive an obstructed-view cabin. Travelling parties also aren't guaranteed cabins near each other.
On the upside, passengers can sometimes receive a higher-category cabin at no additional cost.
For many cruisers, GTY fares can be a perfectly reasonable way to save money if they don't particularly care where their cabin is located.
But that's quite different from deliberately paying more to choose one.
This has happened on Ovation before
The October passengers aren't the first Ovation of the Seas guests to encounter the issue.
Passengers booked on the ship's 14 August Alaska sailing also reported receiving notices that their cabins were being reassigned because of occupancy requirements.
In that instance, Royal Caribbean similarly told affected passengers that replacement accommodation would be within the same category or an upgraded category, with bookings temporarily showing GTY status while the changes were processed.
Ovation of the Seas underwent a substantial refurbishment earlier this year, including the addition of new accommodation and changes to several public spaces.
However, Royal Caribbean has not publicly established that the refurbishment caused the occupancy-related cabin reassignments, so the two shouldn't automatically be connected.
Image: Royal Caribbean International
Choosing your cabin isn't always just about preference
For some passengers, losing a particular cabin might be a minor inconvenience, especially if the replacement turns out to be an upgrade.
For others, cabin location can be an important part of their booking.
Someone susceptible to motion sickness might deliberately choose a lower, more central location. A passenger with mobility concerns might select accommodation close to a lift. Families travelling together may choose neighbouring cabins, while light sleepers can spend an unreasonable amount of time studying deck plans to make sure they're not directly underneath somewhere that starts rearranging deck chairs at 5am.
There are also passengers who simply have a favourite location and are willing to pay for it.
Royal Caribbean's terms may permit occupancy-related cabin changes, but the current situation raises a separate consumer question.
If a passenger pays a higher fare specifically to select their cabin, and the cruise line subsequently removes that choice and temporarily places them into the same GTY system they paid to avoid, should the cabin-selection price difference be refunded?
For affected Ovation passengers, their eventual cabin assignments may determine just how much the change matters.
An unexpected upgrade could turn the whole thing into a pleasant surprise.
Cabin 14268 directly underneath the pool deck? They may have slightly different thoughts. 😂
